


hey brother, there’s an endless road to re-discover

by callunavulgari



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Laura Hale, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic, F/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2014-04-21
Packaged: 2018-01-20 05:32:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1498534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/callunavulgari/pseuds/callunavulgari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She should be glad that her mother doesn’t actually die until they’re already in the back of the sheriff’s cruiser, five minutes away from her classroom with its curious eyes. She should be glad, because that means that when her eyes burn red, Derek is there for her—tears staining his cheeks, broken inside already—wrapping his arms around her wordlessly, creating a hiding place for her in the warm, soft shadows just under his jaw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	hey brother, there’s an endless road to re-discover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [antistar_e (kaikamahine)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaikamahine/gifts).



> Written for Elizabeth over at my tumblr for an AU writing meme. It was supposed to be three sentences. It was also supposed to have Cora in it somewhere. Whoops.

She should be glad that her mother doesn’t actually die until they’re already in the back of the sheriff’s cruiser, five minutes away from her classroom with its curious eyes. She should be glad, because that means that when her eyes burn red, Derek is there for her—tears staining his cheeks, broken inside already—wrapping his arms around her wordlessly, creating a hiding place for her in the warm, soft shadows just under his jaw.

For precious few seconds even, in the shelter of her little brother’s arms, she is. That lasts long enough for them to round the corner—long enough for her to see the wreckage of their home with her own two eyes, and she has to ponder just what it meant, that her mother was alive during that, burning.

She isn’t glad after that.

.

She almost takes them to New York. They’re in the car, halfway through Montana when she realizes what a city will mean for them. They’re a broken pack—a new alpha that never really considered the idea that someday she would take her mother’s place and a broken beta that smells like ash and guilt.

A city will mean hundreds of new sounds that they aren’t used to, unfamiliar land beneath their feet, and she can’t do it. She can’t throw herself and her brother, two kids who grew up with the woods protecting them from a _small town_ , into that. She can’t, even knowing that the local pack is willing to let them into their territory, so she calls up Marianne while she’s making a sharp u-turn through the grass median.

Derek is staring at her when she hangs up, still silent, so she smiles at him.

"We’ll carve our own place," she tells him, reaching for his hand over the gearshift. His fingers tangle in hers.

.

They find a mostly empty piece of land for sale in northern Washington, a couple miles out from the Okanogan National Forest. It’s close to the border, and is thankfully far enough away from another pack’s territory that being there won’t step on any toes. The land consists of an ancient farm house which is more vine than anything and a couple dozen acres of forest.

"What are you doing, Laura?" Derek asks her eventually. They’re sleeping on the porch of the farm house, mostly huddled into each other since Derek refused to let her buy anything more than a couple blankets and two pillows on the way there. She’d paid a fortune to have supplies delivered out to the middle of nowhere, but sometime in the next 48 hours, they’re going to get a shipment of everything they might need to build a house. Including books on _how_ to do it.

"Currently, I am using you as a pillow," she tells him, nuzzling the skin beneath her cheek.

He grunts, pulling back far enough that she’s forced to actually look at him, peering through a curtain of dark, tangled hair. God, she needs a haircut. “You know what I mean,” he says, scowling down at her.

She sighs, laying her head back down on him, and whispers the truth. “The best I can.”

.

It takes years to get the house the way they want it. Half of that time is spent sleeping on the porch and waking to the sun slanting through the trees, because it takes forever for them to figure out how to safely wire a house. It’s not something that Laura would ever skimp over, so she takes the time to do it properly, driving two hours every day to take classes. They sleep on the porch and work harder than they ever have in their lives.

The house itself comes together after a year of hard work, but it doesn’t get any easier once they have an actual roof to sleep under. After dealing with wayward pine needles and the leaks in the awning over the porch, sleeping in the farthest corner of the living room because they can’t agree on furniture is heaven. She misses sleeping in a bed, she really does, but piling onto Derek at night and rubbing her armpits in his face just to hear him curse at her is almost worth it.

They collect bits and pieces for their home like magpies instead of furnishing it like normal people. The first time she comes back from hunting to Derek smirk-smiling at her over the back of a truly hideous couch he’d ordered off of amazon she leaps over the abomination and tackles him into a wall. They have to replace the wall and the couch itself after the impromptu fight, but as far as she’s concerned, mission accomplished.

It starts like that, each of them competing to see who can order the most horrifying piece of furniture. After the stuffed collection of groundhogs though, they call it quits.

Somewhere along the line, her brother comes out of his shell. He starts talking more. Cuddling without prompting. Eventually, he comes hunting with her, and they take down a large stag together. It doesn’t feel like _home_ did, but that’s okay. She doesn’t want her and Derek’s new home to feel anything like their old one. Too many ghosts.

.

The nearest town is Okanogon, which is even tinier than Beacon Hills, and consists of a church, a high school, and a couple fast food joints. The only restaurant is an old Amish place that has the best apple pie that Laura has ever had. Once or twice a month they make the trek up there and never stay for longer than an hour.

And why should they? They can catch their own food, they have water, and Derek insists that they can make their own toiletries, though she's still dubious about that. She’s fine with her little pack, the little chunk of territory they’ve carved for themselves—the last of the Hales.

.

"No, Laura."

She doesn’t want to know what her face is doing right now—isn’t sure that she wants to. She can feel Derek looking at her, can feel the fear simmering away at the back of his mind, because he sees it too. He knows what it means, even if the locals are assuming it’s just some asshole tagging wildlife.

Her eyes trace the outermost curve of the spiral carved into the deer’s flank, claws cutting into her palms.

"But Derek—”

He snarls at her, spinning her around so that she’s looking at him—at him, away from the dead animal found on their old territory, away from the _challenge_ —his fingers digging little bruises into the crook of her elbows. He’s half shifted, fangs out, eyes blue, and it rankles something inside of her, something that insists on smacking him down—

She fights back the impulse when he whines,getting his hands hooked beneath her thighs and lifting her up and out of the creaky computer chair that they’d found along the side of the road. Her legs go around his waist as he buries his nose in her hair, and all of the anger goes out of her when he mutters in a creaky, broken voice, “You can’t — you can’t, you’re all I have left.”

"Okay," she whispers, running her fingers through his hair. "Okay."

He makes a broken sound into the skin behind her ear, something between a whimper and a whine, and his grip on her tightens, as if he doesn’t believe her.

It takes ten minutes to coax him back onto the couch and she bounces in his lap when he finally drops onto it. She shushes him carefully, nosing into his hair and rubbing her cheek against his. When he finally surfaces, he kisses her.

She’s surprised for all of two seconds before she surrenders herself to the feel of his lips against hers. He makes a breathless noise when she returns the kiss, hands clenching and unclenching around her hips.

A lick of want curls up her spine and she thinks of all the ways that she could break her little brother like this, with just her words. She could shatter him into pieces right now, with one choice insult, send fissures through the still mending wounds of their fragile little pack. She could — but she doesn’t.

"Please, Laura," he whimpers between kisses, his breath hot and humid against her lips, his hips pressing up into hers. His dick twitches where they’re pressed together, and she has to bite her lip and close her eyes to avoid punching her claws through the couch. "You can’t go."

"I won’t," she tells him as she rolls them both to the floor. She kisses his lips again, gently, hooking her claws under the button of his jeans. "I promise."

.

She’s happy with their life. It takes some time, but she thinks that Derek is too. He smiles more and they pass the days with sweet kisses and gentle banter. They go running, race each other to the peak of the nearest mountain, and roll in the leaves until playful wrestling becomes something else entirely.

She’s happy here, so she doesn’t dwell on how it could have been, if she’d taken them down a different path. She doesn’t want to think about drowning in the scents and smells of the big city, not when she’s come to realize how much she adores the silent serenity of seclusion.

They watch the stars together and Derek noses a happy line over her collarbone. She pulls him into her and closes her eyes.


End file.
